1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to bird feeders and, more particularly, to such feeders that realistically simulate the natural tree-like environment in which birds live and feed.
2. Description of Related Art
Numerous types of bird feeders of the kind exemplified, for example, by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,414,922 and 4,829,934, have been developed over the years. The typical bird feeder includes a housing generally fashioned as a cylindrical tubular container. The housing has at least one feeding port therein. A rod-like perch extends outwardly of the housing beneath the feeding port. Birds rest on the perch and peck bird feed such as seeds through the feeding port.
Bird feeders have been mounted on many different types of supporting structures. They have been suspended on many different supporting structures. For example, they have been suspended from natural trees or other overhead supporting structures. They have also been supported from below by having been mounted on poles or like supporting structures mounted in the ground. They have also been mounted on window sills and held in place by windows of one's home.
Although the known bird feeders have been generally satisfactory for their intended purpose of attracting as many wild birds as possible into the view of a bird watcher, all the known bird feeders have been deficient in that they did not realistically simulate the natural tree-like, outdoor environment in which birds live and feed. The known cylindrical tubular containers did not resemble natural trees. The known rodlike perches with no leaves thereon did not resemble natural tree branches. In short, the known bird feeders did not satisfactorily attract as many birds as they could have if they more realistically simulated the natural tree-like, outdoor environment.
Also, the known bird feeders could only be positioned in certain predetermined locations where the aforementioned supporting structures were present. Thus, if there was no tree, support pole, window sill or the like nearby, the bird feeder could not be positioned in a remote location away from where the supporting structures were present. Moreover, there often were circumstances where the bird watcher wished to change the location of the bird feeder, but was constrained from doing so because of the unavailability of a supporting structure at the new location.
Still another drawback of known bird feeders was the difficulty in cleaning them of bird droppings, dirt, dust and other contaminants. The known bird feeders were essentially one-piece structures with their various parts not readily disassembleable to enable efficient and rapid cleaning of each part.